【社会】与东南亚相比，在中国旅行是怎样的体验？

【来源龙腾网】

正文原创翻译：

Hi,

My partner and I travelled around South East Asia (Singapore, Thailand,Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) last year and it was really enjoyable. There is obviously a lot of infrastructure for tourists that made it easy for first time travellers.

For our next destination, we have been deciding between travelling in India or SEA again (This time Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines). Lately I've been thinking about China as a third alternative. It seems interesting, big, lots of history.

Politics aside:

I'm curious to know from people who have travelled both (or just China) what comparisons you would make, the cost, the pros/cons etc?

Thanks!

嗨，

我和我的伙伴去年环游了东南亚（新加坡、泰国、越南、柬埔寨和老挝），感觉非常愉快。显然，这里为游客提供了大量的基础设施，这为初次旅行者提供了便利。

对于下一个目的地，我们一直在考虑是去印度还是再去东南亚（这次是马来西亚、印度尼西亚和菲律宾）。最近，我一直在考虑把中国作为第三个选择。它似乎很有趣，面积广大，历史悠久。

撇开政治不谈：

我很想知道，去过这两个地方（或只去过中国）的人会怎么比较，费用是多少，优点/缺点是什么？

谢谢！

papperonni

China is incredibly unique, even compared to other East Asian Countries. It's similar to the United States in that it is so big and has such a massive culture, that many middle class people can live their entire lives traveling domestically without ever going abroad. Tons of tourism in China is specifically domestic and not always super catered to foreign travelers, even if signs are translated into English. Unless you are confining yourself to super western friendly areas like Nanjing Road or Pudong in Shanghai, a handful of sites in Beijing, etc., it can be very difficult to navigate through. Most western sites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. are blocked (without a VPN) - a digital vacation you think! Except until you need to access a flight or hotel reservation or itinerary that was on your Gmail. Western credit cards don't work in 99.9% of places, everyone uses WeChat or Alipay to pay for stuff.

Even cash is uncommon now, and when you rely on cash, don't be surprised if people don't have change or seem irritated. You see English everywhere on street signs, storefronts, advertisements, even on people's clothes, but the people wearing them speak no English. You need your passport to go to many places, and you need to carry it with you everywhere. China is incredibly safe, which is good, because your carried cash and passport are literally your lifelines, maybe more than your phone since you may have difficulty connecting to wifi in many places and may not be able to access your typical sites. Metro maps and high speed rail is very intuitive, and many things have English translations; its very easy to navigate everything in China if you are used to international travel... until something doesn't go according to plan.

If you aren't visiting China with someone from the country or aren't going on a guided itinerary, make sure you do your homework and come well prepared with copies of your flight and hotel itineraries, and lots of cash. China is an incredibly rewarding country to visit, incredibly safe, and can be very cheap (or not depending on where you go), but only if you know what you are getting into. It's not a country you should 'wing it' in.

即使与其他东亚国家相比，中国也是独一无二的。中国与美国类似，国土辽阔，文化多元，许多中产阶级一生都在国内旅游，从未出过国。中国大量的旅游活动都是专门针对国内游客的，并不总是那么迎合外国游客的口味，即使标牌都翻译成了英文。除非你把自己限制在像上海南京路或浦东这样对西方人超级友好的地区，或者北京的少数几个景点等，否则在中国旅游会非常困难。大多数西方网站，如谷歌、Facebook、亚马逊等都被屏蔽了（如果没有 VPN）--你以为这是数字假期！除非你需要访问 Gmail 上的航班、酒店预订或行程。99.9% 的地方都无法使用西方信用卡，每个人都使用微信或支付宝付款。

现在连现金也不常见了，当你依赖现金时，如果人们没有零钱或因为找钱而恼火，不要感到惊讶。在路标、店面、广告上，甚至在人们的衣服上，你随处可见英语，但穿衣服的人却不会说英语。去很多地方都需要护照，你需要随身携带。中国的安全令人难以置信，这很好，因为你随身携带的现金和护照简直就是你的救命稻草，也许比你的手机还重要，因为在很多地方你可能难以连接到 wifi，可能无法访问你常用的网站。地铁地图和高速铁路非常直观，而且很多东西都有英文翻译；如果你习惯了国际旅行，在中国游览一切都非常容易......直到有些事情不按计划进行。

如果你不是和来自中国的人一起游览中国，也不是在导游的带领下游览，一定要做好功课，带好机票和酒店行程的复印件以及大量现金，做好充分准备。中国是一个非常值得一去的国家，非常安全，而且可以很便宜（也可以不便宜，取决于你去哪里），但前提是你要知道自己在做什么。在中国，你不应该“随心所欲”。

原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

sittingshotgun

I remember my first time in China, think of how much Mandarin you know, that was exactly how much English anyone on the street knew. Everything was so big, and so foreign (as a Canadian), that when I would take a cab out to a particular location (with an address written by the hotel staff), I have no idea how I would have returned home without the business card of the hotel that I was staying at. The communication gap is so big that even generic hand gestures seemed to have zero intelligibility, I would have had as much luck trying to communicate with Martians. That said, incredible place, I've returned several times and it has changed a lot since, it's a lot easier now than it used to be.

我记得我第一次来中国的时候，想想一个普通外国人会多少普通话，那么街上的人就有多少会英语。一切都那么大，那么陌生（作为一个加拿大人），以至于当我打车去一个特定地点时（地址是酒店工作人员写的），如果没有下榻酒店的名片，我都不知道该怎么回家。交流的差距是如此之大，以至于连普通的手势似乎都无法理解，我可能跟火星人的交流都不会那么磕磕绊绊。尽管如此，这里仍然是一个不可思议的地方，我已经回来过好几次了，现在已经发生了很大的变化，比以前方便多了。

Triseult

Canadian in China

I 100% agree you can't "wing it" in China. However, a few things will go a long way:

Get an eSIM like Airalo before coming, or have a roaming data plan. That'll ensure you have internet pretty much everywhere AND will circumvent the Great Firewall, letting you access, say, your Gmail account.

Get AliPay and WeChat and get verified as much as possible with it. Add your international credit cards to them. These days, AliPay/WeChat with an international card works almost everywhere.

Get a good offline translator with camera functionality so you can translate e.g. menus and signs.

What makes China a lot easier than it could be is how nice people are here. I've yet to meet anyone who has been impatient with my limited Chinese and unwilling to do a bit of back and forth with a translator to figure out what I need.

我完全同意你不能在中国“随心所欲”。不过，有几件事会有很大帮助：

1. 来中国之前先买一个像 Airalo 这样的 eSIM 卡，或者买一个漫游数据套餐。这将确保你在几乎所有地方都能上网，并能绕过防火长城，让你访问比如说你的 Gmail 账户。

2. 使用支付宝和微信，尽可能多地进行验证。将你的国际信用卡加入其中。如今，使用国际卡的支付宝/微信几乎在所有地方都能使用。

3. 买一个好的带拍照功能的离线翻译器，这样你就可以翻译菜单和标志等。

让中国变得更容易旅行的是这里的人都很友善。我还没有遇到过对我有限的中文不耐烦的人，也没有遇到过为了弄清楚我需要什么而不愿意和翻译来回沟通的人。

cementturtle

You don't want to end up like me and be stuck in the middle of nowhere at 2 am trying to book a train ticket and nobody understands. I learned my lesson. For everything else I had to book I would ask someone at the hostel or guest house to write down exactly what I wanted , for example what train, what time, what class of ticket. Made things much easier.

你不会想像我一样，凌晨两点被困在荒郊野外，想订一张火车票却无人理解。我吸取了教训。对于其他需要预订的东西，我会请旅店或招待所的人写下我想要的东西，例如什么火车、什么时间、什么等级的车票。这样事情就简单多了。